G324 - In Blue Skies Video Textual Analysis

Mise-en-scene:
The female in the music video wears a red dress. This red dress gives connotations of love and sexual attraction.

The male character who wins the female over is wearing a light blue shirt, whereas the others who don't succeed are wearing darker colours. Because he's wearing a lighter colour he appears less threatening/more approachable than the others.

The lighting of the pub is low-key, making it look like a realistic natural environment. There are some twinkly lights in the background when the lead female is on screen giving it a romantic feel. 

Sound:

There is only non-diegetic sound within the video because no sound is being produced within the film, a sound track is overlayed onto the video.

Camera:

Goodwin's Theory states that most music videos will feature close-ups of all the band members to advertise the band better. In this music video many close ups are used to do this as well as aiding the narrative by enabling us to see the reactions of the characters. Slow motion is also used in order to show the viewer her decision making and what she thinks of each man.

Narrative:

Four band members are attempting the woo the female (also band member). One by one they get turned down by her until the final man wins her over and they leave together.

Titling:

The only title is at the end displaying who made video.

Representation: 

There is a stereotypical representation of a female in the music video, she is objectified by the males as she walks into the bar as they all stare at her. There is also a stereotypical representation of males in the music video as all they are interested in is winning over the female. 

Posted by All

G324 - Magazine and Digipak Draft Designs

As we have chosen what design we would like for out digipak and magazine advertisement from our initial ideas, we did a rough design for what we would like them to look like on Photoshop.

Digipak

Outside Cover

Inside Cover

As we have not yet had the photoshoot with our two actors in the video, the images of them that are shown on our first hand drawn design are not yet available to be put onto our digipak. So these designs are just a rough idea of what we want the final product to look like. 

 Magazine Advertisement

A few more things need to be added to our magazine advertisement, such as a album release date, website address, Twitter, Facebook and YouTube web addresses and the record company logo. An image of the two actors also need to be added to the advert, once we have the appropriate pictures of them. 

Posted by Abby 

G324 - Location Scouting

Beach:
Location Requirements: Opportunities for varied and interesting shots, Different and interesting things for cast members to do, bright/sunny, shouldn't take too long to get to.

Locations considered:

Walton

We considered this beach as we knew it had some of the features that we would want from a beach, also two of our group members had used this beach before for a shoot and were pleased with how it looked on camera. However it would take an hour to get there by car and was expensive to get to by train, this means we would risk running out of daylight as it gets dark very early now.

Mersea

This beach had all of the features we wanted from it as there were more interesting features that would look interesting on camera. Also, it is only a half an hours drive away which meant we would have more time to film and we would not miss out on the main time of sunlight. However we would have to ensure that the tide was not high when we go as this would block off the bridge to Mersea Island.

Park:
Location Requirements: Large open fields, Dogs must be allowed, some extra features (E.g. benches, flower beds, statues,trees, forest)

Locations considered:

St Andrews

The park had the large field that we required for some of the shots on our final storyboard and shot list. It also had a large forest which we could use for some additional shots to make our video more interesting. However, the main problem with this locations is that there is a children's play area that takes up a large amount of the park and if we were filming there we would have to get parental permission if there were any children in the park.

Admirals

This park had many large open fields where dogs were allowed, this meaning it fit with our requirements. It also had different features, such as a statue on the top of a hill that we could use for some different shots. As the park is so large it has many different areas which have different features. There is a small river which we would also be able to incorporate within our music video. There is also a children's play area there but as the park is so large we would be able to avoid that area and film somewhere else.

Campire Scene:
Location Requirements: Fairly large space that has no grass nearby so we are able to make a campfire safely and there is also enough room for cast and crew to move around the fire safely.

Locations Considered:

Hayley's house

As we are considering using Hayley's house to film the Christmas scenes in the music video we thought we should consider it for the camp fire scene as we would be able to get two lots of footage filmed within one day. We needed an area that was not covered by grass so we were able to make a campfire on the ground. However, with Hayley's house's garden there is only a small patio space at the top of the garden, which we would not be able to make a fire on. The rest of the garden is all grass so this would not be appropriate nor safe for a campfire. We could have used to log burner at Hayley's but we decided we would try and find another location as that was not the look we wanted.

Abby's House

Although the majority of Abby's house's garden is grass there is a space at the bottom of the garden that is just gravel. We will be able to use this to create a campfire as there is no risk of any grass nearby catching fire and there is enough space for the cast and crew to move safely around the fire. The type of chairs we needed for the campfire scene are available and there is enough room for them to go around the campfire as well.

Christmas Scene:
Locations Requirements: A big enough room so that we could see the Christmas decorations and tree. Christmas decorations to already be up to save us time when filming.

Katie's House 

The room in Katie's house were considering using, we had already decided to use for the Restaurant scene so the room would have looked the same meaning that the restaurant would have looked unrealistic. Also, the Christmas decorations would not have been up in time for when we wanted to film.

Hayley's House

The room we were considering using for the Christmas scene in Hayley's house is big enough to be able to see all of the Christmas decorations and is not a location we have used before to film a different scene. The Christmas decorations are already in place as they were put up on the first weekend of December, so everything was prepared.

Restaurant Scene
Locations Requirements: A plain or patterned wall which we could place a small table and chairs against to make it look like a real restaurant.

Katie's House

In one of the room's in Katie's house there is a large patterned wall that is suitable to film against. There was also a small table and chairs available that we could place against the wall to create a restaurant look. As this room had been used before for the same type of scene in a different project we knew it would be suitable for what we wanted.

The Angel Pub

We considered using an actual restaurant to film as it would obviously be the most realistic option. However, we would need to get permission to film in there as it is a public place. Getting permission could cause us problem, but we do know if we are not able to get permission we know that we can create a realistic restaurant space at Katie's house.

Concert
Location Requirements: Large area with a plain wall background. Professional lighting also required.

Locations Considered:

Drama Studio
We considered using this venue as it was a large enough space to accommodate the band and there was also professional lighting available to use. The only problem is there is not a plain wall that we could film against as there is coat hooks in the way. We could however use the large dance mirrors if we got a large piece of black material to hang on  them.

Asylum Music Venue
We considered this venue as it is somewhere that is specifically designed for music concerts. There is a stage available for the band and there is also lighting available. However, a problem with this venue is that it doesn't really suit the genre of a band and it is more a venue for the heavy rock genre.

By Katie and Abby

G324 - Animatic Storyboard

G324 - Initial Props Information

As we have multiple locations in our music video we needed a variety of different props. These are our initial ideas for what props we need to each different location to make everything look as realistic as possible.

Location: Hayley's house(Christmas)
Props: Christmas tree, christmas decorations, cardboard boxes and wrapping paper for presents.

Location: Park(Picnic)
Props: Blanket, food, drinks, Tupperware, paper plates, beach bag, cups and portable speakers.

Location: Beach
Props: Towel, umbrella

Location: Katie's House(Relaxing, birthday and restaurant)
Props: Guitar, sofa, lamp, ukulele, cushions. Cake, candles, table, chairs, cups. Table, table cloth, chairs, menus, glasses, cutlery, napkins.

Location: Drama studio(Concert)
Props: Stage blocks, big mirrors, big black sheet, lighting, instruments, microphones.

Location: Abby's house(Fire)
Props: Log burner, logs, camp seats, marshmallows, sticks for marshmallows.

Posted by Abby.

G324 - Costume Information

Campfire

Sam - Blue jeans, T-shirt, Burgandy hoodie, converse
Cat - Black jeans, dark top, cardigan, Timberlands, Natural make-up, Hair down

Restaurant
Sam - Shirt and tie, jacket, smart trousers smart shoes
Cat - Black dress, black shoes, more make-up, jewellary

Christmas
Sam - Christmas jumper, jeans, socks
Cat - Christmas jumper, leggings, socks

Park trip
Sam - Leather Jacket, blue jeans, T-shirt, converse
Cat - Green Jacket, Burgandy jumper, leggings, Timberlands

Beach
Sam - Hoodie, blue jeans, t-shirt, converse
Cat - Large black jumper, bodycon skirt, black tights, Timberlands

In Blue Skies performance
Boys - dark (navy) jeans, Light coloured shirts (possibly over a t-shirt)
Jade - Dress, tights, possibly a blazer

Posted by Katie Pridige

G324 - Photographic Storyboard

Above is a photographic storyboard created from referencing our first drawn storyboard, so that we could get a more realistic idea of how the piece would look and to see what pieces would fit in where.

Posted by Mia

G324 - Rough Film Schedule

Location: Beach(9th November)
Crew will have to be there for sunrise. Actors will then arrive 1 hour after sunrise- 2 hours filming time.

Location: Park-Dogs and Picnic(5th November)
12-3pm

Location: Katies House-Fire Scene(13th November)
8pm-10pm

Location:Hayley's House-Christmas Scene(6th November)
3-5.30pm. Crew to arrive at 2pm to set up

Location: Katie's House-Resturant Scene(8th November)
7-9.30pm. Crew to arrive at 6 to set up.

Location: Drama Studio-Concert(15th November)
4.30-9. Crew to arrive at 3.30 to set up.

All of the dates for filming, apart from the concert, are subject to change due to the actors in our video having other commitments.

Editing will take place over several weeks, starting from the 18th November. This gives us plenty of time in case anything goes wrong and footage needs to be re-filmed.

We will use this schedule to make sure we complete all of our filming and editing on time. It shows us what needs to be filmed and when and if we fall behind on filming then we know we have a bit of spare time to complete any extra filming needed.

Posted by Abby

G324 - Draft Storyboard

The storyboard will enable us to be able to think ahead with planning for the actual shoot of the video. We will know how many locations we want, how many scenes we want from the band, and the shot list will be based upon the storyboard.

By - All

G324 - Film and Music Videos for Inspiration

Films

500 Days of Summer:

We took inspiration from this film as the music genre we are working with would fit well with it due to other songs on the soundtrack having similarities to In Blue Skies. This being an independent film means that it would make sense for an independent bands music to be featured in it.

The film's storyline focuses on a couple's relationship over time and demonstrates significant points throughout their relationship. This storyline has many similarities to our music video narrative and the meaning behind it's song.

One Day:

This was our main source of inspiration for our narrative as in this film the audience sees a couple spending their anniversary, of when they met, together. This is very similar to the narrative of our music video. The romantic genre of this film reflects our music video as the storyline includes romance as a key element because the song is about a romantic relationship.

Both of these films demonstrate the male and female as being equal to one another, which is something we wanted to portray within our music video because this would help to portray the comfortable and happy relationship that our characters have.

Music Videos

Panic Cord - Gabrielle Aplin:

The narrative in this music video shows Gabrielle Aplin looking through a box which contained various objects that brought back memories, of her previous relationship, to her. The audience are shown these memories as flashbacks. From this we agreed that, as a group, we liked the concept of demonstrating the key points of a young couple's relationship.

Starlight - Tonight Alive

The inspiration we took from this video was purely connected to editing as we really enjoyed the variety of split screen techniques they used throughout the video.

Posted by Mia and Katie

G324 - Look Of Our Music Video

 

This post shows the type of look we are going for when creating our own video. These images are from existing music videos, which have all been successful and come from the same genre that we will be creating a video for. By having these as a reference, we can always look to check that what we're creating is similar, therefore making it fit in the genre and hopefully be successful. 

Posted by Katie Pridige

G324 - Research Into The Chosen Artist

The chosen artist of our music video is the band In Blue Skies who joined YouTube in April 2011, their first video called This Love was made two years ago and their most recent was made 7 months ago. Live performances were last uploaded 3 months ago.

The band is made up of five people, Chris, Jon, Jade, Ash and Sam. The five met in university and formed their band. The genre they perform is Acoustic Pop with a general upbeat feel. Their videos are normally of a happy and pleasant narrative with bright colours and often the sky is featured in the video, but not always. The video of the song Take Me Back for example did not feature the sky at any point.

The narrative of both the video and the lyrics often relates to love or relationships, though the narrative will often end in a happy ending with regards to the videos they make, the most recent video Take Me Back ending with one of the characters going home with the girl.

In Blue Skies often feature an outdoor scene in their videos at least once, again with Take Me Back being an exception to the rule. This is a theme we feel we should stick to in a few parts of our video, considering the beach as In Blue Skies have previously used and also parks, streets, fields etc. Our exact locations are yet to be decided after location scouting and considering the pros and cons to each location.

In Blue Skies also usually have a specific order in which they perform. It usually goes Ash, Sam, Jade, Jon, Chris. However, the men occasionally shift round a little depending on how good it looks on screen but Jade will always be at the centre due to her being the lead singer. We will need to keep this in mind when we set up for any performance filming in our video.

We decided to use the band In Blue Skies because they were available when we needed them and because we knew the narrative to the song we wanted to use would fit with the bands previous videos.

Posted by Hayley

G324 - Lip Syncing Video

This is our lip syncing practice video with the song Nine In The Afternoon by Panic! At The Disco.


Original Music Video:

Our Lip Syncing Practice Video:

To edit this lip syncing video we used Final Cut Express as a way of practicing with the editing software as we had not used this before. This would then aid us when creating our final G324 music video production as we would know how the software works. It also allowed us to practice syncing up audio and footage together which will again, help us when creating our final music video.

By Katie Pridige

G324 - Our Favourite Music Videos

Abby: Coldplay-The Scientist


The Scientist by Coldplay is one of my favourite music videos as the narrative is backwards. It also fits with the lyrics of the song and the idea about going 'back to the start' which makes the video more effective. The fact that the story rewinds to explain what happens means that the lead singer Chris Martin had to learn the lyrics to the song backwards, which I feel is really clever and a unique way to do a music video. Not knowing what has happened straight away and having to wait to see what has happened engages the audience and keeps your attention to the video so you are more inclined to keep watching the video. Overall, I think it's a very clever and well done video that keeps you interested in the narrative.

Hayley: P!NK - Funhouse

One of my favourite videos is P!NK's Funhouse. I enjoy the fast pace of the video and the special effects that are used to create the exposions, burning funhouse etc. The narrative of the video isn't too serious, which I think makes a better video that continues to keep my attention. The lyrics are also visualised in the video, but not overused, which I think makes it entertaining and engaging to the audience. Contrast is another thing I enjoy about this video, her happy-go-lucky style dance is at complete contrast with her burning surroundings. I also like that it is a mix of performance and narrative, with those in the narrative turning into performers with guitars and a piano. The last shot on the moterbike looks very nice on screen, I really like the cinematograpy there.

Katie: Kina Grannis - In Your Arms

What I like most about Kina Grannis' music video for 'In Your Arms' is the amount of time and work that was put into creating such a fun and unique music video. The Changing background is made completely of Jelly Beans that have been shaped to create a storyline that Kina travels through. It began as an animatic story that was put through a projector and every frame was projected onto a surface then created out of Jelly Beans (Kina Grannis would lay on top of a glass panel over the top of the jelly bean layer). Some frames took about five minutes whereas other took as long as three hours. It took over a year to shoot as Kina Grannis would also have to mime along to her song frame by frame, A video of her miming to the song was used as a reference for this. The entire music video (shooting and editing) took about 2 years, 2460 frames and 288,000 Jelly Beans.

Mia: The 1975- Girls

I really like the video for the song Girls as the whole concept was done as a 'Mickey take' due to some comments received about their last music video because their audience created a 'box' for the band, stylistically, when they released the video for their song Sex and it wasn't in black and white, they didn't like it and thought they were converting to pop, in order to conform to music label demands. This wasn't true at all, so the band decided to make this video as how a video would go if they were being forced to create a video they didn't want to do/like. Because of this, the video includes all the typical music video characteristics and cliches in one video and we see the band looking very fed up, as they unwillingly make something they don't like to show what it would really be like if the conformed to any restrictions/ideas that weren't their own. We see:

• Close ups of artists (label demands)
• Bright and eye catching colouring
• Band performance shots
• Male gaze theory- focus on women in little clothes and lots of make up
• Unusual locations to create interest
• Lots of different locations
• Erratic story line to create interest/seem quirky
• Females dancing
• Close ups of instruments

All of these are typical of many music videos in the past and are seen as the 'formula' to a successful music video. I like this video because it shows that they don't conform to anything and do heir own thing and whatever they like/think is right.

We completed this exercise so we can see what each group member likes from a music video and what we think works well. We can then maybe take elements from each of our favourite music videos and use them or take inspiration from them when creating our own music video.

Posted by All

G324 - Representation in Music Videos

Gender & Sexuality

Men in music videos are likely to;

• play the instruments
• act aggressive
• act dominant over females
• have stereotypically masculine roles
• wear stereotypically masculine clothing (suits etc.)
• be large and muscular
• have power and wealth

Women in music videos are likely to;

• be dancing
• be wearing little clothing
• have stereotypically feminine roles (office worker, housewife, waitress, cheerleader etc.)
• be provocative
• seen/used as sexual objects- Male Gaze Theory- women are objects to be looked at by men

All of these common themes/ideas are especially apparent and most common in hip-hop/rap music videos.

For example, in the video for Candy Shop by 50 Cent, the artist is seen as basically the only masculine figure in the mansion full of women. This gives him authority instantly. He then drives up to the mansion in an expensive sports car, which shows his wealth and gives him power.

We then are shown many women inside the mansion, who are all very sexualised by the clothes they're wearing.

The male gaze theory can be applied to pretty much the whole video, as the camera is almost always focused on the women, who are either dancing, posing or looking seductively at the male artist or camera. In the screenshot below, you can see the 'male gaze' explicitly, as the artist goes up stairs and looks at all the girls standing around him.

Close ups of the artist in a fur coat and chain, again, connote wealth and power, which is stereotypical of a dominant male.

The shots where the women  are laying with the artist on the bed, or in provocative clothing with props such as whips, show how heterosexuality is very dominant in this video, as it is in a lot of music video and almost the only sexuality represented in hip-hop/rap videos.

Even when the women are given roles that would be considered respectable, they are hugely sexualised, such as the shot seen below, where we see the female as a nurse but the outfit is purely for the pleasure of heterosexual males, as it is a 'dress up' outfit that she uses to seduce the artist.

As mentioned earlier, females are often the dancers in music video and dressed in very little, which is true of this video.

Even when the video steers away from constant sexual themes, the role of the woman is still lower than the male. The male is seen driving what still appears to be a decent car, through a drive through, where the female is a worker at the fast food restaurant. This being typically considered a lower class occupation still represents the woman as lower than the male.

In pop music videos, this is also apparent, but not quite as much.

For example, in Britney Spears' video for Womanizer, the artist is seen not wearing anything at all at many points which is where the Male Gaze Theory can be applied. She is also seen as making food for a male character and is then playing a secretary, which is a stereotypically female occupation. 

In Beyonce's video for If I Were a Boy we see the artist portray the stereotypical characteristics of both genders, with some shots which support the Male Gaze Theory.

Male Gaze

Stereotypical female in the kitchen, serving the male food

Breaking the stereotypes by having a stereotypically male occupation

Regionality

In music videos the main settings are usually somewhere in America. The USA is considered the 'dream' land and places like LA are considered to be 'the place to be' and if you are there then you have 'made it' as it is a very wealthy part of the world.

Places such as London are not seen in that way, but rather the opposite. Rundown streets are often used  in urban music videos, to show struggle and are seen as lower class areas, as opposed to the glamour and glamorous lifestyle shown in videos set in American cities such as LA.

Devlin in his video for London City, in front of the London Eye. Basic and dark shot
used, with casual clothes don't give the setting a glamorous impression

The video includes many shots of dark London streets. typical of an urban music video

Ariana Grande in her video for Baby I, set in LA, sitting on an expensive car in the nice looking, sunny streets 

A shot of Ariana and her dancers in bright clothes, on a roof with a nice sunny background,
showing a nice picture of a place like Los Angeles, contrasting that shown of London in the Devlin video above.

Ethnicity

In music videos, rap and hip-hop tend to be seen as something for and by black people. Hardly any white artist make that type of music and there aren't many included in videos of these genres. 

In these videos, the black men are often seen as pimps, drug dealers, thugs and in gangs. This battles the struggle of racism, in the way that they are seen as powerful and wealthy, but also worsens the issue as these roles aren't considered very respectable and since it's only really black people doing it, they are given a negative stereotype by other ethnicities.

White people tend to be in most other genres, particularly pop, country and rock. 

Ethnicity can be used to draw in wider audiences as well, as if there was to be a mix of ethnicities in a music video, it would attract the target audiences of them all, which would boost views/sales/publicity etc.

A good example of this would be Airplanes by B.o.B ft. Hayley Williams (of Paramore)

B.o.B is a hip-hop/rap artist who would normally appeal to a majorly black audience and those whole like that particular genre, but his collaboration with Hayley Williams on this song enabled him to draw in a much larger audience than he usually would. Featuring Hayley, not only in the song, but also the video, drew in his usually audience, an audience of people who like Paramore (those who would normally like rock/alternative music and videos) as well as a general white audience  who maybe only really watch videos with white people as they can relate more to them.

Post by Mia

G324 - Plot And Narrative Work For The Music Video

A couple (man and woman) first meet on the 23rd of August. This becomes a significant date to them so each month they plan a special day together on the 23rd. These dates were initially earlier in the year, however, we are filming later in the year and discovered that weather is going to be an issue as it will not be as sunny as it would have been before. They do things such as: Visit the beach together, go to the park for a picnic, go out for dinner together, see each other for Christmas and sit around a camp fire together.

 There will also be performace shots included throughout. We were hoping to make this performance appear as a concert that our two main characters are attending. However the extras attendance may prove an issue, we will decide at a later date if the concert idea will work.

We decided on this narrative because we felt we could illustrate it well, and that it was actually realistically film-able. There is nothing too flamboyant or extravagant that we would be unable to achieve it with the resources that we have. The story line is simplistic, but we think that makes it more powerful. It fits very well with our song decision, 'This Day Again', using the fact that they visit each other on the same day of each month.

Posted by - Katie Pridige and Mia Norton